Story all around seems tragic.
Firstly, I'm trying to understand the girl's motive. She was dating this boy, and was pretending to be someone else and act like she committed suicide. There's obviously some issues underlying for her to devise this little scheme (I refuse to call it a prank), but I'm not really sure what her goal was. At best maybe it was honestly just supposed to be a joke, given one in incredibly poor taste. At worst she had some sort of malicious intent, like if she knew the boy had problems or suicidal tendencies, which as they were dating she might of known something more about this. Regardless, I doubt this is the outcome she suspected and it sounds like she may need some therapy to deal with that at such a young age,
Secondly, the boy's story is tragic. I can say I don't think anyone really understands a lot of things at 11, it's an incredibly sensitive age range around there and still in a phase where you're very impressionable. I'm partial to thinking his motives were muddled, but it's hard to say the full extent. He could of been dealing with a lot, maybe depression, it could even be as simple as him wanting to join her as messed up as that is but those years are really confusing. The mother described him as "selfless to a fault," but to me in the context it sounds like he may have been putting others above himself, which might imply he was being raised with the mindset he wasn't as important as others even if he hadn't grown to realize that yet.
Thirdly, I hate to say this but the parent sounds like she wasn't raising her son quite correctly. I understand she's answering questions here and is probably stricken with grief, but everything she's answering makes it sound like she was keeping her son on an absolute leash. It's obvious why he wouldn't tell her anything since she seemed like she was being way too restrictive. Having rules and making decisions and limits makes sense, but with everything here it sounds like she was being too uptight with him so he didn't open up to her and kept things hidden from her. There is a balance between being strict and authoritative and letting a kid be allowed to explore and find their own way.
Fourthly, what the hell Michigan law? Telling someone they should go do something with malicious intent isn't a crime there? Like telling someone on a ledge to jump isn't considered a crime? That needs some serious amending. I know it's a slippery slope and all, but I think there's a bit more needed here.
Fifthly, I hope the family the best. The story says he was the middle of three brothers, and being the oldest of three siblings I can only imagine how much something like this must be wrecking them up. This is all around tragic.
